Through the Fire
by Tigeress33565
Summary: Axel takes Roxas on a date pretty close to Christmas time. He finally meets Roxas's family-and made it through. But what about next time?
1. Chapter 1

"Hello Sir." The red head nodded slightly, feeling slightly nervous as he saw his date's oldest brother answer the door.

"You must be Axel." The cold tone made him remember why he was so nervous as he nodded quickly.

"Roxas will be down in a minute…Why don't you come in?" every fiber in his body told him not to do it…but he _really _wanted to see Roxas.

"Um…Okay." He looked over his shoulder at his car-where his best friends sat staring at him with twin looks of amusements.

"Roxas!" The tall blond called as he stepped aside and let Axel slip in.

His acid green eyes looked around the house as he was led into a large room-where a number of other people set in a bunch of couches.

A brunet that looked remarkably like his blond upstairs (where he assumed Roxas was at) set next to a silver haired man that looked maybe a little younger than his own twenty years of age. He assumed that this was Roxas's older twin, Sora, and his boyfriend, Riku.

His eldest brother-Cloud, if he remembered correctly, set down near another muscular brunet-whom he also assumed was Leon, Cloud's fiancé.

Two women-who Axel could only think were Tifa and Aris-set next to each other, the light brunette-Aris- sitting between the dark haired women-Tifa-and a raven haired man.

The ebony haired man-Zack-was leaning against a larger silver haired man-Sephiroth-who was giving three other silver haired men a dark look.

They seemed to be triplets, and Axel couldn't seem to bring himself to look at them-they must be Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo. A younger girl-maybe fifteen-sat at their feet, staring at him with a dark glare. Definitely Yuffie.

Close by, a large tree lit up the room-green pine needles weaved through with bright yellow Christmas lights next to a fire place alit with a roaring flame.

"So…This is him?" Sora stared, making Axel fidget uncomfortably.

"I suppose. I wasn't expecting Roxas to go for someone so…punk?" Cloud agreed, leaning against Leon to get a different view of the redhead.

Axel tried not to be offended. Roxas had warned him that his brothers were rather protective. But he didn't look _that _bad-damn, he'd even gone out of his way to not look as 'street' as he usually did. Instead of the sleeveless hoodie's and the ripped jeans he would have worn to anywhere else, he'd covered his bare arms with a borrowed normal, plain black jacket from Xemnas. His jeans were the least ripped he had-these the only ones he'd actually _bought_ with the hole in them-and he had decided against the his normal eyeliner. He couldn't fix his tattoos under his acid colored irises nor his almost sickly pale skin, but he had tried to draw attention away from them. Hell, Axel had even taken out his lip ring.

"Why does Roxas have to go _now_?" Yuffie whined, just as the blond in question rushed down the stairs, still pulling the hoodie he'd been messing with for the last hour or so.

"Shi-Axel!" He immediately brightened up, his deep blue eyes suddenly gaining a new sheen to them as he came to a stop at the bottom of the large stairwell.

"Yeah, Sorry I'm so early...Larxene just couldn't wait to see you house." Axel smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head as he took in what his date looked like.

They'd only met five times before this-this being their sixth date-and Roxas still took his breath away.

He was beautiful-no other words would describe him. His hair was the purest blond Axel had ever seen, like the halo of an angel-his eyes the clearest blue he'd ever even imagined…he felt as if he were drowning

"It's fine." Roxas grinned, looking up at Axel-who had a good 5 inches on his on 5'7-and blushing slightly.

They looked at each other, seeming to forget Roxas's family only ten feet away. Their eyes seemed to connect in the light and Axel felt himself falling-metaphorically of course.

"Hm…Wonder how long they'll stay like that." Cloud's voice hardly broke through their minds, but it did break through. Roxas jumped slightly, looking away with a major blush appearing on his cheeks.

"W-we'd better be going then…" The smaller blond stepped closer, grabbing Axel's gloved hand and leading him towards the door-glancing behind him to look at his family for a moment.

"I'll be back in awhile!"

"Don't be too late!" Sora called back, just as Roxas opened the door and slid out, dragging Axel out with him before slamming it shut.

There on the doorstep Roxas kissed him.

Immediately, his strangely clothed arms wrapped around the blonds' waist and he kissed back-ignoring the distant catcalls of his friends in the car.

"W-what are you wearing? And where's your lip ring?" Roxas murmured after a moment of the two of them enjoying the other on the stoop.

"Just a jacket…Borrowed it from Xemnas when I google'd your address for directions and found out you were loaded." Axel snorted, "Thanks for telling me that by the way."

Roxas smiled sheepishly, "Sorry…Sort of forgot. I thought everyone knew the name 'Strife' in this city."

"Not us street kids," Axel smirked, "Had I known you came from money, I defiantly would have worn something else."

"I don't know…" Roxas leaned up on his toes, pecking Axel on the lips before backing away-into the snowy yard.

"I rather like your look-much better than the way you look now. Do you have your piercing with you?"

Axel had returned the ring to its place in seconds of the question, feeling more like his self as he unzipped the jacket and stretched.

"Better." Roxas smirked, beckoning Axel closer into the shadows of the large tree planted in the middle of the large, white yard.

In seconds, the blond was giggling and rolling around with the elder man, both of them slowly getting soaked in the snow as they played slightly.

"You know their looking out the window." Roxas laughed, falling back as Axel crawled over him-his bare arms on either side of the blonds' head as he leaned down to brush cherry red noses with the other, his bare arms turning slightly red and getting goose-bumps in the cold air.

"Let them…" the older man grinned down at his younger date-kissing him gently as he took in the image of his angel splayed across the snow.

"You're so…" Axel trailed off, slowly sitting up so that he was straddling Roxas, looking down at him from his knees.

"So?" Roxas smiled, sitting up as well to playfully nip at Axel's nose.

"Beautiful." The redhead smiled, one hand going to tilt Roxas's head slightly by the chin.

"Beautiful?" Roxas murmured, his eyes half-closing as he looked into Axel's green orbs, falling into them and allowing himself to finally sink into the taller man's charm.

"Yeah…that's the only word I can think too describe you…"

Roxas smiled then, about to say something in return when the car horn blared-blocking any other words from either of them and causing a light laughter to fall from the blonds' lips.

"Come on! We still need ta' get Zexion and Xion! Xemnas is picking everyone else up but we're gonna be late if we don't hurry Romeo!" Demyx called gleefully, laughing as Axel flipped him off and stood up.

"Yeah! Roxy-baby will still be just as edible in the warm car as he is in the cold snow!" Larxene added, just to see the reaction of both her friends and Roxas's snooping family.

"You better not do anything to him god damn it!" Cloud's voice snarled through the yard as suddenly Roxas was laughing loudly and dragging Axel towards the beat up old lime colored car the blond(e) siblings inside owned.

"He can't promise anything!" Demyx called back as Roxas and Axel fell into the back seat-the blond on top of the redhead-and he switched off into 'drive'-just as the whole of Roxas's family ran from the house.

He peeled down the drive way and out of the slowly closing gates with the two older brothers trying to chance down the cars and Roxas making faces at them through the back window.

Rather quickly, they were off the estate and in public road systems-leaving Sora and Cloud behind.

The four of them laughed-and continued to laugh until they pulled up into the fairly sized drive of Demyx's boyfriend-who jumped from the curb he'd been sitting and reading on for the past twenty minutes and got into the car-kicking Axel's legs out of the way and forcing the two of the other back seat occupants to sit in accordance to the state law.

"So I got a call from a cousin of mine not half an hour ago." Zexion murmured in his quiet, soothing voice.

"And?" Demyx asked, the atmosphere of the car having calmed considerably in the time between Roxas's escape and Zexion's pick up.

"And he said my boyfriend's friend has kidnapped his boyfriends younger brother. Would you like to explain to me why I had to listen to Sephiroth go on and on about the jail time for kidnappers or shall I just assume the worst?"

And suddenly, the laughter was back. Roxas was soon turning red in the face as he hid his face in Axel's chest-trying to stop the tears of mirth that appeared.

Axel was the only one able to breathe properly enough to explain the happenings of only awhile ago.

"I knew your name sounded familiar." Zexion cracked a smile-proof enough that the incident was indeed funny enough to laugh at like they'd been for the past half hour.

Roxas only grinned, his eyes shining brightly as he glanced at Axel and caught his eyes.

Again, they went into a trance-both losing themselves in each other-much to the amusement of the others in the car.

Moments later, Demyx had a fond smile on his face and he was glancing from the road then to Zexion and then back again and Larxene was excitedly looking at the road-signs signaling that her girlfriend was drawing closer.

"Hey…If you got a call from your cousin…Are you related to Riku?" Roxas asked suddenly, looking at Zexion from his place on Axel's lap.

"Yes. He's a cousin of mine-then there are also his three half brothers and his older full brother." Zexion nodded, glancing at him for a moment before going back to his book.

"Wow…I never knew we were connected at all. Small world." Roxas smiled, closing his eyes and resting against Axel again as they drew to another stop and a raven haired girl jumped into the back with them.

"Xion!" Larxene grinned widely, a much happier expression coming across her face then the amused one before.

"Larxene!" Xion grinned back, leaning in for a kiss before Demyx took off again-heading towards their destination.

"So how'd it go picking up Mr. Big-shot-rich-man here?" Xion laughed, her voice chiming like a bell.

"Well, Mr. Big-shot-rich-man here forgot to inform me of his Mr. Big-shot-rich-man status before I google'd his house. The damn thing's an _estate_ and almost three hundred acres." Axel snorted, one hand going to ruffle Roxas's hair fondly.

"Not to mention his family probably hates me. Demyx made it sound like I was gonna rape him as soon as we were out of view."

Roxas chuckled, "No…You passed. If they really didn't trust you, they'd have sent our body guards after you. Leon and Sephiroth? Yeah. Kadaj and his brothers probably would have tagged along just for the show." The blond grinned.

Axel just smirked back, "I can't wait for you to actually meet them though. Maybe next weekend.", then paled considerably.

"M-meet them? A-are you j-joking? Sora sounded like he wanted to spork my eye out!"

"That's just Sora being protective. Once they meet you, you'll be fine." Roxas grinned, "I mean, you make it through the fire this time, why not one more? In less you're afraid…" he trailed off with a wicked grin.

"Me? Afraid?" Axel scoffed.

"No, no…If you're afraid-you wouldn't be the first. It took Cloud five years to find someone who would meet my family face to face and that was before Sephiroth. I won't blame you if your that intimidated." The blond smirked.

"Ha! Intimidate? Me? Don't make me laugh! Like you said, if I made it through the fire once, I can to it again…right?" his voice cracked at the end as they pulled into the pizza place that their friends had decided on meeting at.

Nobody moved.

"Of course you can." Roxas grinned as he opened the door to the lime green beat up car and jumped out-casting one more wink at Axel as the redhead followed.

"I can do it! Next weekend would be fine!"

"Really? Next weekend is Cloud and Leon's wedding. Cloud wanted me to invite you." Roxas's sweet smile turned suddenly wicked again and he stared into Axel's wide eyes.

"Scared yet?"

"N-no! Never!" the taller tried to say-but ended up squeaking out. He was scared shitless by the blonds' family, and he'd only met them once.

"We'll see." Roxas chuckled and the other four still in the car just laughed at how wiped Axel had already become.

Through the fire was okay, but he'd just promised to swim in the volcano, and the others all were having trouble deciding.

Would he make it?


	2. Chapter 2

So for Akuroku Day (because fuck yeah, I remembered! :D) I decided to do a little sequel for Through the Fire. Enjoy!~

It is not beta'ed and I am sick of looking at it so if there are any blaring mistakes, tell me please! ^^;

* * *

EDIT: Fuck, I totally remembered the day D: I swear, but we started school and I've been so tired that everyday after I get home, I do my homework and then collapse and die until the morning so i'm sorry this is so late! It was supposed to be posted on the 13th...T-T

* * *

This is sort of a crash course in this universe, because even I get confused sometimes and I generally use the same family lay out for all of my AU's;

Axel is dating Roxas who is Sora's twin and Cloud's youngest brother.

Riku is dating Sora, and is the youngest brother of the Jenova's.

Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo are the triplet Jenova's, and Sephiroth is the oldest brother, and is dating Zach.

Kadaj is/will be dating Reno, Axel's older brother.

Loz and Yazoo are secretly together.

Zexion is Riku's cousin, and he is dating Demyx.

Demyx is the younger brother of Larxene, who is dating Xion.

Xion is friends with Naminé and Kairi, who are sisters. They are Leon's younger sisters (only in this story though. Usually they are a pairing and not related to Leon at all.)

Leon is dating Cloud.

Tifa is a high school friend of Cloud's and a Strife family friend, and she is dating Aerith, who is Zach's ex-girlfriend and another Strife family friend.

Yuffie is Leon's adopted sister.

Cid is the adopted father of Cloud and his brothers, and Vincent is their adopted mother.

Seifer is Leon's best friend/rival, and he is dating Hayner, Roxas' best friend.

Olette and Pence are dating, as are Rai and Fuu.

Saix is Zexion's adopted older brother, and is dating Xemnas.

Xigbar is a good friend of Xemnas, and is dating Luxord, who is the owner of the building that Cid runs his business through.

Xaldin and Lexaeus are part of Xemnas' group (Organization XIII),

Marluxia and Vexen are together.

* * *

Roxas smirked as he leaned against the beat up hood of the lime green car.

"Are you sure you wanna do this?"

Axel scoffed, trying to hide his nervousness.

"Pu-lease. This is will be a cake-walk."  
The blond grinned, eyes sparking as he spoke; "If you say so."

He took the tall redhead's hand and squeezed it lightly, "So you're ready to actually meet them all? I mean…it didn't turn out to well last time."  
"You didn't warn me that they were All gonna be there…"  
"They weren't All there." Roxas grinned, "You haven't meet Cid or Vincent yet."

"Ooh, are we talking about Roxie's family?" A new voice suddenly chimed in as another blond, Demyx, appeared, sitting next to Roxas and wrapping a friendly arm around his shoulders.

Roxas laughed softly, kicking his feet slightly, his ripped up, faded jeans catching the younger blond's attention yet again.

He wasn't used to wearing them yet, still used to his high class slacks.

"Yeah. Axel is pretending to be brave."  
"Don't worry too much, Axel. As long as you don't piss any of the Jenova's off, you'll be fine…" Zexion appeared from behind Axel, moving to stand next to his boyfriend.  
"I don't even think that's possible. Ax, our Ax, not pissing someone off?" Demyx laughed, ducking away from Axel's slap.

Roxas grinned, "As long as he just nods and looks pretty, I think we'll be okay." He winked at his taller boyfriend, his voice teasing.

"Yeah, I'll try to nod and look pretty. 'not too sure on how the second part is gonna go though, if I have to stand by you, Roxie. You already know that you outshine everyone in the room." Axel grinned, leaning over to kiss Roxas on the cheek before the boy could slap him away in embarrassment.

"Sh-Shut up…" Roxas blushed brightly, not quite able to keep the smile off his lips.

"Aww, are the love birds flirting again?" Yet another blonde appeared, Larxene, said, her green eyes sparkling in mirth as her dark haired girlfriend, Xion, went to sit on Roxas' other side while she elbowed Axel.

"No!" Roxas squeaked at the same time that Axel purred out; "Yes."

Zexion snorted, "You are totally gonna die."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Zex. Foxy Roxie and I are gonna survive fine though."  
They fell into a comfortable silence, only Zexion noticing his boyfriend grinning at him and showing three fingers, counting down slowly until Roxas' annoyed voice spoke up as the last finger went down;

"…did you just call me Foxy Roxie?"

"Ready?" Roxas asked, beginning to ring his hands together as Axel stopped the lime green 'crap-mobile'- as Demyx liked to call it-behind the garage he'd instructed him to.

Axel grinned, trying to hide his own nervousness, "Geez, Roxie, you're more nervous that I am. It isn't like you're the one they're gonna kill if they don't like me."  
"But…but it is me who loses you…" Roxas looked away, biting his lip, "What if they scare you off and you don't want to see me anymore?"

Axel blinked, then snorted, one hand moving to gently tilt Roxas' head back up and towards him so that he could lean over and kiss him.

"Don't be stupid. I really like you, Rox. No matter what they do, it won't scare me off."

The blond hesitated, watching him for a moment, deep blue eyes searching his own acid green for a moment, before he smiled that beautiful, breath-taking smile that always had Axel melting on the spot. This time was no different and Axel was positive that had they been standing, his knees would have given out.

"Promise?"  
"Promise." Axel winked, kissing him again, before turning the car off and getting out, walking over to Roxas' side to open the door for him.

His smaller lover rolled his eyes, though the smile didn't leave his face no matter how hard he tried, "I'm not a girl, Axel."

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean I can't be polite." Axel grinned, winking at him.

"As you should always be." A new voice added to the conversation, making both boys jump.

"Fu-"  
"Vincent!"

Roxas' happy voice cut Axel off before he could say the full curse word, and the redhead spun around in time to see Roxas through himself on to a tall man with long, raven black hair. 'Vincent' was dressed in a deep red, a little darker than Axel's own hair. His suit was obviously expensive, though he wore it as if it were an everyday kind of clothing for him, unlike how stiffly Axel walked in his own 'expensive' (or at least, as expensive as he and Demyx could afford, since they both wore it when the occasion called for it) suit when he wore it. His hair was tied up by a long ribbon the same color as his suit in a loose but artfully so way, and bangs were left to frame his face-showing off his strangely colored eyes. They were also a wine red color, and if Axel weren't so used to weirdly colored eyes and hair by now, he'd have assumed that he was wearing contacts. It was also obvious that the suit was an everyday thing for him because the actual wedding wasn't until tomorrow.

"Roxas." The man's voice was just as dark as before, smooth yet rough, scary. But there was what might have been a hint of affection in the way he said Roxas' name, and the small smile that formed on his lips helped confirm it.

Vincent Valentine, then, he was sure.

Roxas' adopted parent, along with Cid Highwind.

"Vincent." Roxas smiled, his blue eyes bright, "You haven't met Axel yet." He glanced back at Axel before taking Vincent's hand and beginning to lead him over to the redhead.

"Axel, this is Vincent Valentine. He's sort of like my mom." He grinned, laughing at the grunt of protest from the man behind him.

"Vincent, this is my boyfriend, Axel."

"I-it's nice to meet you." Axel finally found the courage to say, offering a hand like Xemnas had explained to him was the polite thing to do.

Vincent stared at it for a moment, then up at Axel's face-which he was at eye level with, just to put into prospective how tall he was-then back at the hand, then at Roxas, before taking it and shaking.

Axel hid the wince of pain at how tight he gripped him from Roxas well.

"A pleasure." No affection in that tone. None at all.

Roxas smiled brightly, "So where's Cid? I know we're a day early, but I figured Cloud would want Sora and I supervising so…"

"He is working on one of his…projects." Vincent smiled slightly again, though it was more forced in Axel's opinion this time around.

"Ooh." Roxas nodded, wincing, "How long has it been?"  
Vincent sighed, dropping Axel's hand as if it burned as soon as Roxas had looked away, sending the redhead a dark look, "Seeing as he's giving it to Squall and Cloud as a present, he's been working on it for nearly three weeks now. He's built it from the tires to the engine to the interior." He shook his head.

Axel gulped slightly at the look, quietly looking around as Roxas and Vincent spoke.

The room was big, though he could only tell because of the ceiling and the feeling of he got. After about ten feet in every direction besides the one he and Roxas came from, there were long, black curtains blocking off the view.

"-and he absolutely refuses to come out." Vincent sighed, shaking his head.

Roxas blinked, then frowned, "But that means he's been in there for at least two days…do you want me to try and go get him?"

Vincent looked almost relieved, "Would you? I would do it myself, but he always gets grease in my hair and…" he winced.

Roxas laughed softly, nodding.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll just go and show Axel my room before I go get him. Then I can go see Cloud and help make dinner?"

Vincent hesitated at the mention of showing Axel Roxas' room, but nodded nonetheless.

"Of course. I'll tell the others you've both arrived."

"Thanks Vincent." Roxas smiled, leaning up to kiss his cheek, before he turned to Axel, completely missing the death glare that the dark haired man gave Axel behind his back.

Axel paled, as much as he could at least, considering his already snow-white complexion, but forced a grin at Roxas.

"I get to see your room?"  
"Well duh." Roxas rolled his eyes with a fond noise, taking Axel's hand.

As he began to drag him away, Axel couldn't help but look over his shoulder and stick his tongue out at Vincent, ignoring the man's shocked look as he turned back to Roxas just in time to catch his blue eyes.

"So we'll get our stuff later?"  
"No. Vincent will have someone bring it to my room later." Roxas smiled, as if having a servant was completely normal. To him, it was.

"Oh…okay." Axel grinned slightly, "I could get used to that."  
Roxas flushed, "Shut up..." He pouted.

Axel laughed, wrapping an arm around his waist as they began to walk up a large, grassy hill.

"So why did they decide to hold the wedding so far out in the middle of nowhere?"  
"It isn't nowhere. This is the main estate." Roxas hummed, leaning against him.

"It's where all of the Strife's get married."  
Axel hesitated, then nodded and went quiet.  
"So…explain your life story to me." Axel said after a few seconds of silence.

The blond snorted, "Well, wasn't that forward?"

"Sorry." The taller boy laughed softly, "I'm a straightforward guy, you know."

Roxas rolled his eyes, "I'm quite aware." He stopped about half way up the hill and hesitated before sitting down.

"Here's as good a place as any." He shrugged, looking up at the clear, blue sky.

Axel blinked, then plopped down next to him, picking at the frayed edges of his best jeans-a new pair he'd gotten just for this occasion, with only one hole in it from Larxene stabbing them when he wasn't looking.

"So, as I've told you, my brothers and I were adopted by Cid and Vincent. When Sora and I were born, my mother died. She was a weak bodied person, and giving birth to two kids at once was too much for her and she died a little bit after holding Sora and I for the first time. My father wasn't every really the same after she died. He was always working, or so Cloud says. He was like…four? Five? When mom died…so while dad was at work, he would hire a babysitter to watch us all. Sephiroth was only a few years older than Cloud, otherwise he would have been assigned as our caretaker even though he was already taking care of all of his younger brothers, but he was only nine, and dad wanted a little more adult supervision." Roxas took a breath, waiting for Axel to lay back in the grass before joining him, resting his head on Axel's chest.

The redhead began to run his fingers through the blond's hair as he continued to talk.

"For the first few weeks, it was all good. And then the babysitter sort of went crazy. Apparently, dad didn't do a good background check, 'cause this chick had like major issues. She kidnapped Cloud, Sora, and I and tried to take us out of state before dad could catch her. Luckily, she didn't make it off the estate. Sephiroth had already called the police. They sent Vincent, and he caught her before she could get too far. My father absolutely insisted that he hire Vincent on the spot as our babysitter. Since we're…well…the Strife's, it didn't take much convincing for my father to get Vincent to agree. That's how we met Cid. I was…what, seven? Yeah, Sora and I were seven when my dad died. Cloud was eleven or twelve. Dad had gotten into a car accident, and went into a tree. The crash killed him on impact and the tree sort of…impaled him."

Again, Roxas took a break and Axel pulled him closer, leaning down to kiss him.

Damn, if he'd known that the story was this painful for his Roxie, he wouldn't have asked.

"You don't have to…"  
Roxas smiled, shaking his head, "You'll find out eventually. Might as well do it now before we get into some wacky, drama-filled hijinks…anyway, by that time, Vincent and Cid had gotten really close with us. For the first few years of our lives, Sora and I actually thought Vincent and Cid were our mom and dad." He laughed softly, "And Cloud never really tried to discourage that thought, since he called Cid 'dad' on more than one occasion on accident…so when dad died, it wasn't really…as emotionally horrible as it could have been. We were all torn up about it, but, well, we still had them. So when we were orphaned, dad had already set it up so that if anything happened to him, they'd get full custody of us as well as all of our assets until we were legal. And we've been together ever since. Even Sephiroth and his siblings look to Vincent and Cid as parental figures. They've just…always been there to take care of us."  
Axel blinked, almost feeling bad about sticking his tongue out at Vincent earlier. Almost. He'd started it, after all.

"Wow…they sound like…really great people." He murmured, kissing Roxas' forehead. And he meant it.

He sort of wished that he and Reno had had people in their lives like Vincent and Cid.  
Roxas smiled, "They are…but enough about me. I want to know about you now. Since we're sharing life stories and all."

Axel laughed softly, running his hair through Roxas' soft hair as he thought for a moment.  
"We don't have quite that interesting of a story, actually…Reno's like…four years older than me. When I was twelve, and he was sixteen, he got mixed up in some shit. My parents were too into their own shit to care, so for a while, I was by myself for the most part. My grades dropped, all that shit, I got mixed in with a gang. Xemnas' brother's gang, actually. When Xemnas caught me at Xehanort's house, he pretty much kidnapped me and took me home. The next day, he tracked down Reno and I dunno what he said, but it snapped Reno out of whatever the hell funk he was in, because after Xemnas left, Reno flushed his drugs and all of his other shit and pretty much went through self-induced rehab. After that, it got better. My grades went back up and Xemnas never really left, he was over at least twice a week, making sure Reno and I were okay. You could sort of say, he was like a father figure to me. More than my own father, anyway." He grinned, stretching out and relaxing in the grass.

Roxas smiled, moving so that he was on top of Axel on his hands and knees, forehead pressed to the redhead's.

"You're something else, did you know that, Axel?"

"I had a feeling." He grinned.

"Shut up." Roxas smirked, leaning down to kiss him deeply.  
Before either of them could get really into the kiss though, a new voice interrupted.

"What are you doing?"

Roxas threw himself off of Axel, squeaking, "Ohshit!"

Axel set up himself, wincing at the semi-familiar voice.

"S-Sora." Roxas supplied the name, and Axel forced himself not to wince.

Of course they'd get caught hidden away behind a hill by Roxas' crazy twin brother.

"A-and Riku."  
And his crazier boyfriend.

Of course.

"Roxas." Riku's voice murmured fondly, walking over to help Roxas off the ground, stepping on Axel's foot, hard, as he did so.

The redhead glared at him slightly, but doesn't otherwise react, pouting slightly.

"Nice to see you again, Alex."

Axel twitched, about to say something when Roxas beats him to it.

"It's Axel, actually." The blond smiles, standing and helping Axel up, squeezing his hand, not bothering to hide it from Sora and Riku at all.

Because he has to hate Axel, because there is no way he would go out of his way to make Sora and Riku hate him more than he does.

"Of course." Riku says after a moment, forcing a less-than-hateful look on his face as he looks at Axel again.

Axel smiled at him, smug and high as a kite now that Roxas was defending him.

"Well then, Axel." Sora grinned, though it was obviously forced.  
"Let's get you settled. Lunch will be served soon."

* * *

"And this is the dining room." Roxas pulled the door open to reveal a large, tastefully decorated room with a long, rectangular table in the middle of it, big enough to sit at least twenty people.

Sora and Riku hadn't left their sides since they'd been caught on the hill. By the time Roxas had shown him to the room they would be sharing-his old room, there had barely been enough time for Roxas and he to change into the outfits that Roxas had bought for today-their luggage already having been brought up.

Axel was now in a pair of thick jeans, obviously made for work (because Roxas had made it clear that he would be helping Roxas in any way Roxas saw fit) and a black, sleeveless shirt. Over the shirt, he wore a thin white jacket that matched the accent on the jeans.

Roxas was in more formal clothes-slacks, a sedated purple shirt and a black dress-jacket.

Once they had been dressed, Sora had whisked them to the dining room for lunch.

Already, a number of now-familiar faces made themselves known.

Vincent set at the head of the table, next to him set a rough-looking cropped-blond haired man with a disgruntled look on his face and a grease-stained dress shirt showing. That must be Cid.

On Vincent's other side set Cloud-Axel could immediately recognize Roxas' bright sunny-blond hair and the bright blue eyes that both Sora and Roxas shared with their older brother. Next to Cloud set Leon-still as stoic and hard-eyed as the first time Axel had last set eyes on him.

Across from Leon set Zack-next to Cid. Zack was making wild hand gestures as he spoke to Cloud about something, nearly hitting Yuffie-who was next to him-in the face with each gesture.

Next to Yuffie was Aris. Across from Yuffie and next to Leon was Tifa. The triplets- Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo-and Sephiroth stood slightly behind their charges-Sephiroth a few feet away from Cloud's chair, Kadaj playing with a something in his hands as he stood near Vincent and his eldest brother standing by Cid while Yazoo stepped closer to Roxas.

_Bodyguards_, Axel was reminded.

There were two new faces that he'd never seen before. Another blond with a scar running across his face in the opposite direction to Leon's, and a dirty blond with gravity-defying hair who was messing with the older stranger's hair.  
"Hayner!" Roxas grinned, squeezing Axel's hand before letting go and racing over to the now standing and grinning dirty blond.  
"Rox!"

They practically glomp attacked each other, making Axel hide a smile behind his hand.

The other strange blond rolled his icy blue eyes.

"Nice to see you, too, Roxas."  
"Fuck off, Seifer, I'm hugging your boyfriend." Roxas replied jauntily, making the brown-eyed teen under him laugh.

Seifer rolled his eyes again, snorting.

"Get offa' him before you break something."

Roxas set up, grinning down at Hayner, "Now that you're here, you can finally meet Axel."

The table seemed to tense slightly as one, but Roxas either didn't notice or ignored it.

Axel, on the other hand, did notice it and sent a praying look to the ceiling, 'Oh God, if you're there, don't let them kill me.'

Hayner grinned, "Finally?" he set up, looking over Roxas' shoulder to spot Axel-who gave him his best 'oh-god-don't-hate-me-too' smile.

Hayner laughed softly, whispering something to Roxas before both of them were suddenly standing and by Axel, Roxas holding his hand and Hayner on his tiptoes so he could touch his hair.  
"There is no way that's natural."  
"It is." Both he and Roxas answered together, his pretty blond smirking while he tried not to die under the sudden intense glares he was getting from around the room.

The only friendly one in the room just laughed again, offering a hand, "Hayner Dincht. This idiots best friend."  
Axel smirked, "Axel, his boyfriend."  
And _God_, did it feel good to say that in front of someone who had impact in Roxas' life and didn't immediately hate him.

Roxas blushes, squeezing his hand tighter, "Hayner's been my best friend since the first time I snuck out when I was ten."

Hayner rubbed the back of his head, grinning sheepishly, "Did he tell you he was loaded, or did e let you figure it out on your own, too?" he asked Axel.

Axel snorted, wrapping an arm around Roxas' waist as he shook his head, "I had no idea until I went to pick him up and got lost going up the driveway."

Roxas blushed, hitting his chest lightly, "Stfu, jackass. Larxene was driving anyway."  
"Speaking of, when do I get to meet the rest of the gang?" Hayner looked at Axel expectantly.

Axel blinked then grinned, because oh fuck yes, someone actually liked him. Someone important to Roxas actually liked him.

"You can come with us next time we hang out? Which should actually be pretty soon since everyone wants to know how Roxie's family decided to kill me. My votes on skinning and making into a throw rug but…" Axel smirked, only half joking.

"I don't know, you seem like more of a burn-alive kind of guy." Hayner joked back.

Roxas pouted, "No one will be skinning, throw rug-ing, or burning my boyfriend anytime soon, thank you."

The slightly taller blond laughed, grabbing both Roxas and Axel by the hand and beginning to drag them to the table, "Come eat then, he looks like he's gonna break in two if a strong wind hits him."  
Roxas laughed, "You'd think so, but he's strong enough to pick both of us up at the same time. All muscle." He shook his head.  
Axel coughed into his hand to hide his smirk from the rest of the family.

Maybe, as long as Hayner here liked him and Sora didn't seem as bent on murdering him as he was last time, he'd be able to make it through the volcano too…

Cloud and Leon both stared at him as he set and he winced.

Or maybe not.


End file.
